"We believe that nation-states have responsibilities in cyberspace, just as they do elsewhere, to abide by certain standards of behaviour," three top officials of the Obama administration wrote in an op-ed.

That is why the US remains deeply concerned about China's continuing and indisputable government-sponsored cyber theft from companies and commercial sectors around the world for Chinese companies' advantage, they wrote.

"The United States does not engage in these types of activities," wrote the three officials J Michael Daniel, Robert Holleyman and Alex Niejelow.

"This behaviour is adversely affecting the fundamentals of the US-China relationship, harming the ties of our business community, tarnishing Chinese firms' international image, and at a broader level, undermining the basic foundations of free and fair commerce," it said.

That is why China's government-sponsored cyber theft for commercial gain is not just a US-China issue. It is an issue of concern to countries around the world. It needs to stop, the article said.

The officials expressed their opposition to the Chinese new rules requiring technology companies doing business with banks to demonstrate that their products are "secure and controllable".

"Not only are these regulations inconsistent with international cybersecurity best practices, they are anticompetitive trade barriers," they wrote.

"Our companies should be able to sell their innovative products in China, and innovative Chinese companies want to do business here in the United States. As governments, both the United States and China shouldn't undermine that engagement—we should encourage and protect it," it said.

"Such regulations will also limit the inflow of the latest internationally-tested secure technologies into the Chinese market and diminish our collective efforts to improve cybersecurity worldwide," they wrote.

These regulations also reflect a troubling pattern of behaviour by the Chinese government to use cyber threats to justify policies that undermine the open and interconnected nature of the Internet—qualities that have made the Internet such a powerful enabler of global economic and social progress, they alleged.

"That is why, in addition to urging China to reconsider these new regulations, the United States will remain steadfast in our defence of Internet freedom and a multi-stakeholder -driven Internet governance model, as well as continue our support for norms of state behavior in cyberspace that facilitate international trade and commerce," the article said.